Minor No.18 Zech 14

And what I want to do just for a moment or two is to set up a little perspective of helping you to interpret this 14th chapter, and I'm going to do so by reminding you of one or two things that I brought to your attention when I gave what in effect was a lecture on how the New Testament writers handled Old Testament prophecy. So here's just a reminder for a moment of one or two things I've taught before, and I'll try and explain them simply and in a fashion that will stick in your mind. When we think of the second return of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine is that Jesus will come again, and that's marvellous.

There's no one who disputes that who's an evangelical Christian. What is at under dispute is how he will come again. I mean what will proceed and what will follow his return, and there are three major schools of opinion on that, but this evening I'm just going to refer back to two, and that is those who believe that when the Lord Jesus returns, he will set up a visible reign on this earth which will last for 1,000 years.

That 1,000 years may be interpreted symbolically as just a long period of time, but he will visibly come and rule, and before the eternal age comes about, the Lord Jesus will have set up his government here on this earth. The pre-millennial approach to prophecy, Jesus Christ reigning 1,000 years on earth, and then the eternal age of the new heavens and the new earth being made, that will then come in. Others, however, take the viewpoint, and it's known as amillennial, A standing for non, non-millennial, no literal millennium.

They take the viewpoint that Jesus Christ reigns now in his church, and when the Old Testament makes reference to the reign of God in a prophetic sense, then one immediately should look to the church as being the fulfilment of this. That carries with it the idea that the New Testament church is the equivalent in the Old Testament to Israel, Zion being the spiritual way of suggesting Jerusalem, and all who belong to the Lord Jesus are in the new Israel and therefore members of the new Zion. Well, that by way of reminder, the reason why this is important, that is why it's important for me to say to you, as I did in my opening comment, that when you come to Old Testament scriptures, you must look at the way the New Testament writers handle their prophecies.

It's because when you get to the New Testament letters, you come across some very interesting things. For instance, in the epistle to the Hebrews, which perhaps quotes the Old Testament more than any New Testament epistle, some very amazing conclusions are made in regard to the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Now, again, I'm going through this very quickly.

You know that in the epistle to the Hebrews, there's some comment made about the priestly function of Old Testament men, and we are told that our Lord Jesus Christ is the great high priest. He's the one who brings to an end the Old Testament concept of priesthood. He is a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Something else that's very interesting, the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, we're told in the letter to the Hebrews, is made perfect in our Lord Jesus. There were hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands of animals slaughtered and offered for sacrifice in Old Testament days. But with the advent of the Lord and him going to the cross, all that is brought to a halt.

Do you remember how Hebrews tells us in the eighth and ninth chapter that there is one sacrifice for sins forever, and as a result of that, there's no need again to have the priestly ministry as in the Old Testament perspective, we see it in terms of offering animals on an altar and so on and so forth. Another thing that is very intriguing, amazing, is that the letter to the Hebrews makes no reference at all to the literal land of Palestine as being returned to the Jews. I find that to be very, very significant.

We get in Hebrews the picture of Abraham setting off from the Ur of the Chaldees and moving into the promised land, but then in a very daring fashion, the writer to the Hebrews says, but that really wasn't what Abraham had fully in mind. He looked for a city whose maker and whose builder is God, a city not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In other words, his ultimate destination was not earthly, but heavenly, and no reference is made in the book of Hebrews to the land of Israel as a geographical factor.

Now, I think that's significant, and you'll see the importance of my drawing attention to these things in a moment or two. Another letter which is fascinating as far as prophecy is concerned, and there aren't that many that deal specifically with prophecy in New Testament letters, but another letter or portion of a letter that does deal quite intriguingly with Old Testament prophecy is Paul writing to the Romans. And the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters are very, very vital in understanding what Paul has to say about the Jews.

At one point, he puts up a question, for instance. He says, has God cast away his ancient people? And you would expect him to say, yes, he has, because his argument up to that point seems to suggest that as they reject the Messiah and are still under their sins, so there is no hope for them. But instead of coming back with a, yes, he has, in the eighth chapter and working out his argument in the, sorry, in the ninth chapter and working out his argument also in the tenth and the eleventh, he goes on to show that God has not cast away his ancient people.

And he has the idea of the branch being grafted on back to the vine, and a large number of Jewish people coming back into the family of God with the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ directed towards them. And you remember that magnificent, intriguing statement in those three chapters which talks about, then shall all Israel be saved. And there are many views on the commentators, in the commentators, as how to understand that verse.

But the significant thing I feel about Romans is, once again, Paul makes no reference at all to the land of Israel in terms of a physical, literal return of the Jews to the land as a fulfillment of prophecy. Now, those are interesting things. I don't think they can be disputed, although there are other verses of Scripture to which attention might be drawn in the New Testament.

And doubtless, if we have some time for comment later on, some of these will come up. But I just wanted you to bear these things in mind as we come to chapter 14 of Zechariah. And here we have set forth a very graphic description of Jerusalem in trouble.

Let me stay reasonably close to the notes that I've issued, because the speed at which we're going is so rapid that unless you've got notes in front of you, you might lose what I'm trying to say. So, first of all, I want to examine what the chapter itself is saying as you read it straight through. Then I want to show you how two views of commentators have clashed in comprehending what the message of the prophet is.

And after I've totally confused you by showing you conflicting views, maybe we'll have one or two conclusions that at least we can latch on to and feel that as we leave the tabernacle, that maybe it's not such a maze after all. That's what I'm hoping for. Of course, I may be entirely in confusion and leave you in that situation.

May God help me if that might be the case. Well, here we are in the 14th chapter of this prophecy, and a very remarkable, very important time is picturesquely set before the sensitive reader. Jerusalem is in a sorry condition.

A day has come, a day of the Lord, when things go bad for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Verse 2, you get a picture of all the nations of the earth coming around Jerusalem and holding it under siege. And that assault on Jerusalem is largely successful.

The city is captured. Half of the citizens are carted off into exile. The other half remain, and the consequences of bestial warfare are there for us to see.

The city in ruins, the houses ransacked, and the women assaulted. A very grievous situation indeed. But the third verse changes the picture a little bit.

It's not all gloom and doom. The Lord comes to the help of his people, and he fights with them against those who are surrounding them. Only once before, perhaps that needs to be qualified.

Let's not say only once before, but once before in a very remarkable fashion, God did literally deliver his people in the face of impossible odds. I refer to the escape of the Hebrews from the land of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the ultimate transporting of the Hebrews' dry shod through the Red Sea and into the relative safety of Sinai. Well, it's going to be something even more remarkable than that.

Verse 4, supernatural intervention. On that day, the Lord himself personified. God will stand on the Mount of Olives, and as a result of this divine visitation on this historic mount, the place will be split asunder, divided in two from east to west, forming a great valley.

And so you've got the concept of great geological changes around Jerusalem. When these things are fulfilled, literally understood, a great corridor opening up as the mountain splits asunder. And as a result of this natural highway that is made, the Jewish people who remain in the city will be able to escape.

Verse 5, you will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. People are not too sure. Commentators are not too sure where Azel is.

But here is a picture of escape. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake. A back reference made to Amos' prophecy, who also talked of a terrible earthquake that hit Israel some while before Zechariah's ministry.

Well, it will be like that. The days of the earthquake in the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah. And the Lord will come with all his holy ones and will fight for his people.

Now, so sensational will this be, verse 6, that the day will be unique. Not only will there be geographical changes, but there will be climactic changes as well. Changes of weather.

No cold nor frost, verse 7. There will be no night nor day in the sense that day and night have been known heretofore. It will be a unique day without daytime or nighttime. A day known to the Lord.

And astonishingly enough, when evening comes and you expect the gloom of darkness, there will still be light. Now, alongside these geographical changes and the complete adjustment of the weather cycle and the natural beginnings and terminations of the day, there will be a movement of waters. Jerusalem will become a port.

Waters will spring forth from her. And the idea, presumably, is, if I can use an illustration, similar to that of the opening of the Suez Canal and the connection of east and west by a waterway. The Suez, of course, a man-made thing, but this will come about divinely.

And as a result, Jerusalem's function will be considerably enlarged. Not only a city of commerce, a city of great splendor, but also a great port to which, presumably, the ships of the world will sail up to and discharge their cargo and trade. We're told in the ninth verse that in this great day, when all these things happen, the Lord will be king.

There will be no other god, only one Lord, and his name the only name. No further recognition of Allah or any of the pantheon of gods that crowd into the Hindu scheme of deity. Just one God, the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, the one who always is.

Then the tenth verse indicates that Jerusalem itself will be lifted up and become seen by those who are approaching from a distance. It will be raised. It will be inhabited, verse 11.

Never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure. So you've got these pictures in mind.

Great and tremendous changes that are going to affect the whole of that area as literally understood from this prophet on the first reading. And then in the twelfth verse, he takes us really back to what he's been saying in the first two or three verses. You remember those were describing this international conflict in which the inhabitants of Jerusalem had suffered so savagely.

But now the tables are going to be turned. The Jew, the people of God, will not be on their own. God is going to move with them and for them.

And there will be a terrible plague, verse 12. This is the plague which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. And we have a description that we'll not enlarge upon of very nasty deaths experienced by lots of people.

Verse 13, on that day men will be stricken by the Lord with great panic. The confusion will be so much that they'll fight against another. And Judah, the inhabitants around Jerusalem, those who don't actually live in the capital, will fight on the side of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And the wealth of the nations, the wealth of the world, will be brought to Jerusalem. And verse 15, even the animals involved presumably in the conflict against Jerusalem will be affected by this terrible plague and suffer a death equal to the horrors of the deaths inflicted upon the enemies of the citizens of Jerusalem. Verse 16, there will be survivors from all the nations and they will go through a great transformation, a great change of heart.

They are depicted now as going to Jerusalem themselves. And in Jerusalem is seated the great King, the Lord Almighty. And they will join with the Jews for the only feast, as far as I'm aware, in the Old Testament to which Gentiles as well as Jews could go and enjoy, the Feast of Tabernacles, a very significant feast.

Now if people refuse to go, verse 17, then they'll be in trouble. The peoples of the earth, if they don't go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no reign. And specifically the Egyptians are singled out.

If they are obdurate, if they're hard in their heart and they refuse to take part in this festival and acknowledge who God is, then great plagues will come upon them. Halfway through verse 18, the Lord will bring on them the plagues he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and so forth. Verse 20, we have the idea of the holy reign of Messiah, located at Jerusalem, but influencing the whole world.

On that day, holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses. And in the house of God, the cooking pots will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. The idea is of God's house being re-established, the cooking pots and bowls and so on, they were the utensils, you recall, referred to in Leviticus, that were necessary in bringing the ritual of animal blood and so on and so forth into the temple.

Well, all that's back reinstated and it's all clean, it's all in accordance with the old, pure Levitical laws that govern the offering of worship and sacrifice to God. And there will be no one who will dare to enter into the house of the Lord who does not recognize who God is and come in humility. That's presumably what the last sentence means.

And on that day, there will be no longer a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty. Well, that's roughly the picture, as we rapidly have gone through it, of what the passage contains. I think you will agree that that's a very fair synopsis, a very fair summary of the contents and explanation.

I've not stopped to make any comment, I've merely tried to make it clear in your mind. So let's see how we are to interpret these things, because this is an intriguing, terrifying, and in some senses a very wonderful passage of scripture. But what are you to make of it? How are you to understand this scripture in light of today's events, in the light of the international scene in the Middle East, in the light of the Church of Jesus Christ? Well, I suppose it all depends on what I had to say ten minutes ago, or fifteen minutes ago, when I referred to whether one believes that the Lord Jesus Christ is literally going to come again to Jerusalem and establish his reign for a thousand years, and whether he has a specific purpose for the Jewish people over against Gentile believers today.

Let's just go through what, say, a man like maybe Dr. Tadford or T.V. Moore would say in regard to understanding this chapter. They would tell us that the day of the Lord, repeated here in verse 1, chapter 14, with many previous references in chapters 12 and 13. Look at 13.1, for instance, on that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David.

Verse 2, on that day I will banish the names of the idols. Verse 4, on that day every prophet will be ashamed and so forth. That day, repeated again in the first verse of chapter 14, that refers to the day when Jesus returns, the second coming of our blessed Saviour.

And all these events that follow, that are described from the second verse and onwards, and indeed in the preceding chapters, they need to be interpreted in the light of the soon return of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. What has happened, apparently, is that the Jews, and here I haven't time to go into the 12th chapter, the Jews have returned to Jerusalem, or rather they have returned to Israel, as was predicted by the prophets and as understood by someone like T.V. Moore. They've returned to their own land and unfortunately they have made an alliance with a false messiah, referred to as a false shepherd in chapter 11 of this prophecy.

This messiah pays them badly and antichrist arises in the world. And it's antichrist that causes the nations of the world, verse 2, to fight against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And things go badly for the Jews at the beginning of presumably what must be the battle of Armageddon.

So badly that were it not for the return, the physical return of the messiah, then they would be utterly exterminated. But the Lord Jesus does come back and the Jewish people look upon those, look upon the one whom their ancestors have pierced, verse 10 of chapter 12. I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.

They will look on me, the one whom they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only child. And as the Lord comes back and acts on behalf of his people, so dramatically and miraculously there's a cleavage of the Mount of Olives. Literally it's split and this roadway is opened and an escape is made for the 50% of the inhabitants of Jerusalem who you remember were not killed as a result of the international force assaulting the holy city.

So the great day of the Lord comes and the Jews recognize who the Savior is. This is the great day of atonement. And the reason why it is discovered in verse 7 to be a unique day without daytime or night time is because the light of salvation breaks its way through the night of judgment.

The darkness, both literal and spiritual, will be banished from the Jewish community. And as a result of this climactic, the change in climate and the change in topography, the change in geography, the whole land will be utterly transformed. Jerusalem becomes a watershed and as a result the waters trapped in the Dead Sea are released and Edenic bliss ultimately comes back to the Middle East as with a rapid supply of water, irrigation is possible, the land is drenched with that life-giving substance.

And those idyllic descriptions of paradise on earth that you discover at the end of the prophecy of Isaiah, they come then into their fulfillment. And in Jerusalem, physically installed is none other than our blessed Lord and Savior, bringing about his will on this earth. And the nations ultimately recognize who he is.

And from the north, the south, the east, and the west, they move to Jerusalem to do him honor, to pay him his worship, the worship that is due to his holy name. All this, it's thought, particularly by Dr. Tatford, is perhaps preceded by or involved in Armageddon is nuclear explosion. Nuclear weapons are used and thus the horrible description of what happens to men caught up in the conflict in verse 12.

But the final picture that you get is one in which the Lord Jesus is reigning throughout the world. King David's greater son has taken over. The government is upon his shoulders.

And all recognize that he is King of kings and Lord of lords. And his reign shall last visibly on earth for at least 1,000 years before the eternal era is brought in. Well, that's one approach that some very great and godly men have had to this chapter, filling it out in their understanding by bringing other scriptures to bear and putting a very great emphasis upon the land of Israel and its return, literal return to the Jews and their place in the outworking of God's purposes.

But there are other people who've come to this chapter and other related scriptures, and they've seen things somewhat differently. Differently perhaps in secondary emphasis, not different in as much as they're arguing that God isn't going to bring out his rule on the universe and achieve his objectives for creating mankind. That's not up for question at all.

All scholars, all devotional commentators on the word of God recognize that with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, what will happen is the visible recognition by all intelligent beings that he is King of kings and Lord of lords. So the important things, and I'm emphasizing this in case anyone gets worried that people can look at scriptures and draw differing conclusions, the important things are not up for argument at all. There is overlap all the way down.

But on secondary issues, one must admit that there is a disparity of interpretation. For instance, if you are persuaded by scripture that God is reigning in his world today, and he is reigning directly through the church, and that the church really is representative, the church era is representative of the millennial reign of Christ in which he is bringing about his purposes through his people, then, as I say, you might find a different interpretation from this chapter. And the people who are making this interpretation are particularly emphasizing what I brought to your attention right at the beginning of our study, and that is that you can't just come to Zechariah 14 and discuss it and consider it on its own.

You have to ask, what did the New Testament writers make of Zechariah and all these prophetic passages that speak of the gladdened final time when God moves visibly into our world and does something absolutely revolutionary? And they will stress the point that in the New Testament, the Israel of God is a title expressed as describing both Jew and Gentile who confess Jesus as Lord. An entry into the land of God is seen in terms of the commonwealth of Israel, not a geographical area, but a spiritual dimension into which one goes. Peter, for instance, has this in mind when he talks about our inheritance being incorruptible, using the word inheritance that the Old Testament Hebrews would have used in terms of the land of promise literally understood.

So there are those who would approach this chapter and the preceding chapters, and they would think in terms of the day of the Lord, not as being one specific event of 24 hours, but rather that era brought in by Jesus Christ, the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation, says the Apostle Paul. He didn't mean just 24 hours.

He meant the era in which he was preaching. Now we're still in that day of salvation today. We still have the era of grace with us, the gospel day.

In the earlier parts of this prophecy, in the earlier parts of this chapter, references made to the Mount of Olives being split east of Jerusalem into two separate hills, giving this roadway of escape. Now John Calvin suggests that the way that we are to understand this is the opening up of the gospel highway, the early church. The members had to leave Jerusalem.

The armies of Josephus literally came, the armies of Titus literally came around Jerusalem, and the description of the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 and in AD 120, as you read it in Josephus' account, has a lot in common with this prediction of literal problems for Jerusalem in the early part of this chapter. However, I digress. The disciples move away from Jerusalem.

They have a divine intimation as to what is to happen, and as a result of the scattering of the disciples, the church starts to make its mark elsewhere in the world. The gospel river to which our Lord seems to make reference when he talks about out of our hearts bubbling up streams of living water, when he predicts his disciples going into all the world to preach the glorious gospel, well, the suggestion is made in verse 8 that you have a picturesque description of gospel blessings flowing out from the place where the gospel was first made absolute, Jerusalem and its green hill. On that day, living water will flow out from Jerusalem half to the east sea and half to the western sea in summer and in winter, the proclamation of the gospel universally around the world.

And of course, when a person receives the gospel of Christ, then something remarkable happens to them. Once they were children of darkness. You remember how Paul says that in Ephesians 2, does he not? Once they were, and other references too, once they were children of darkness, but now they become children of light.

And it's not something that dims every day. If you're a child of the light, then you're always a child of the light. And the day of your salvation is a unique day and the consequence of its blessings lasts throughout the whole of your life and on into the eternal era.

And as for the raising of Jerusalem, well, as the kingdom of God is proclaimed, raised around the world, as men and women recognize who God is and what the glories of the gospel are, so in effect, spiritually, Jerusalem and what it stands for is heightened in the estimation of people. And ultimately, there comes about the day when the Lord Jesus sets up his eternal rule in the universe, presumably coinciding with the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Now, within the compass of 10 minutes, I've tried to give you what are the two basic understandings of these chapters by those who take these conflicting views as to interpreting the secondary issues.

And if any exponent who's very convicted about either viewpoint was here, he would say that I have undersold him. Well, I'm bound to have done that because you can't express within 10 minutes what is a treatment that takes some of these writers some 500 pages to get through. So, obviously, one has had to summarize considerably.

What can we say about these two views? And I'll try and bring in some conclusions. One of the great problems about taking the passage literally is that it doesn't matter how literalistic a commentator might be, ultimately, he has to spiritualize. You say, what do you mean? Well, let's imagine that in this 14th chapter, we have got a picture of Armageddon, literally.

Let's imagine that we have got the description of nuclear fallout in the way that these men suffer these horrible deaths. Well, my problem there is that it's a very strange army these days that has horses and mules and camels and donkeys and all the animals in the camps. I do find that a little bit difficult to understand literally.

Another problem that I have with a very literalistic interpretation is the reference at the end of the chapter to the, at least by implication, to the restoration of the temple, the Lord's house, referred to twice in a couple of verses there, the 20th and the 21st. And reference also made not just to the Lord's house, but the utensils that are used in sacrifice, the bowls and the pots and so on. And then I think in terms of Hebrews and the idea that there's no further sacrifice for sins required.

One thinks in terms of Ephesians and gathers that the third great temple is a spiritual temple made without hands, constituted of people, a living organism, part of the body of Jesus, so that when he said, destroy this body and in three days I will destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again. We understand what he's referring to because it's not the literal temple of Herod that's going to be rebuilt, but his great and glorious church. So I run into some problems with a literal view.

That's not to say that on the other hand one doesn't run into some problems. There is a great deal of spiritualizing that is necessary to sustain it. And maybe some will think that there is too much.

But however you approach or whichever side you approach this particular chapter on, you will run into certain difficulties. So what's the best conclusion to make? Well, that of only a semi-dogmatism. Oliver Cranwell once wrote to, forgotten who he wrote to anyway, he wrote to somebody and he said, I beseech you by the bowels of Christ, consider you might be wrong.

And however tenaciously you cling to one view or another view or even another view that I've not expressed this evening, remember how utterly confused the Jews were when our Lord Jesus returned on the first occasion. They all got it wrong. And when he does return, and what precedes his return and follows his return, will, I dare to suggest, be of great surprise to all of us.

And maybe if you're allowed in the millennial era or the heavenly dimension, whatever description you want, to give your brother or sister, assuming you can work out the distinction between a brother and sister in those days, a friendly digging the ribs, assuming that you've got ribs in those days, then you might say, why didn't we see it before? And why didn't that fellow when he was speaking at the tabernacle on Zechariah 14 make it that much more plain? The most important thing is this, King Jesus shall return and he has his people in his hands. By him kings reign, by him events occur, and in his absolute sovereignty he will bring everything to that point in history that he has determined. And all one day will recognize that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the day shall come when God shall be all and in all.

Zechariah, the one who God remembers, you recall the meaning of his name? He brings this to our mind. He endorses this on every chapter, and even where he's hard to understand, the thing that is always clear is his commitment to the sovereign rule of God being made absolute in our universe. It's Bang on Half-Past, actually it's just after.

Shall we enjoy ourselves for 10 minutes of